The Revival of Shadow Link

55:

We started fucking running until the ceiling fell.

We could have run all we liked, we weren't fast enough to beat gravity. 

The ceiling fell in large pieces, and the floor beneath us seemed to totally give out, everything happened so fast, I couldn't keep track of what the hell was happening. 

I didn't know I was unconscious until I felt a rough hand shaking me awake and I opened my eyes. He sighed. "I was starting to think you wouldn't wake up," he muttered like he was angry, but I could see relief in his eyes.

Blue held out a hand to help me to my feet.

I thought of my Vio falling before he suddenly stopped, all tied up until Blue cut through the rope binding him to a stone pillar already with cracks spiderwebbing all over it, and that cerulean asshat extending a hand to help my  Vio get up, how dare that asshole lay a hand on my Vio?!

What the fuck is wrong with me?

Vio's voice rang in my ears. "You...were just a bit possessive."

I hadn't been like this before, had I? I mean, I was a bit possessive, but I didn't remember being rip you limb from limb you lay a finger on him, he's mine an only mine, I don't share possessive. I knew Vio wasn't an object, I knew that. And he wasn't just mine, he was himself's. I never had any right to treat him as a possession. Any.

I accepted his hand after a moment, and let him pull me to my feet. I seriously needed to cool it, there wasn't anything wrong with Blue literally coming to rescue Vio from the danger that I put him in.

Blue started backing away from me the moment I was on my feet. "Your...eyes were red there, for a sec'."

I flushed. I hadn't been told my eyes were red in a long time--they always went a bright scarlet when I got angry. I didn't like feeling angry, the truth was, I barely got angry for very long, unless you really fucked up...my eyes hadn't been red in a while, I don't think, had they? I mean, I couldn't see my own eyes...

"I don't know why," I lied. What else could I have said? "Yeah, that's 'cause I was being overly possessive of Vio and thinking about that one time you touched him." That'd make me sound like a psycho. Maybe I was a psycho.

"Why does this keep happening?" I asked Blue like he'd know the answer. 

Dust was falling from the ceiling and chunks of stone were scattered everywhere. I felt blood sticking to my skin and clothes but couldn't pinpoint what wound was where and why there was so much blood when I felt fine.

"If you bleed out....you'll be back in that cell, Shadow." The voice was feminine (aka not Blue's) and seemed exactly like the one that told me to go the staircase so long ago, but...was it really all that long ago? I didn't know, it must have only been at most, 10 hours since I had been worrying over Vio, wondering if he w gonna pull through.

...Was he okay now? Was Princess Zelda? What about Red and Green? Where had Briar run off to? Was Desiderium somewhere nearby? Who the flying fuck was that voice?

I didn't have any way of knowing, and that scared me. 

I looked at Blue.

He had blood stains on his boots--we all did--and his hair was disarrayed. Not only that but there were stains on his tunic, and the only reason he didn't ask me why I was staring was that he was examining his tunic and frowning at the stains and wrinkles like they had personally offended him.

"Did Briar....did she do something?"

He frowned. "I don't know, she...went silent all of a sudden. Didn't make any noise and then just disappeared."

I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding, although I hated to admit that I had been concerned over Blue. None of us had known about Briar, and I had no idea what she was capable of, she...

...had seemed so nice. 

Comforting me in that damned cell, giving me her knife, healing me that one time, why would she do that? Helping them get me out and tagging along could gain trust, sure, but going out of her way to make sure I was armed? She made sure I didn't bleed out, was that just because she was squeamish around blood? And then...

...she didn't know where I was...

...she seemed to actually be afraid at the idea of anyone else but me seeing her, she didn't want Vaati to see her...

...she didn't know what was happening to me for the nine weeks I had been in that damned cell...

...her face lost all color when she thought someone was coming and she left...

She was a good actress, I'd give her that much.

On top of that...I remembered her looking so...guilty when I was freaking out about the nine weeks I had spent in that cell, like she could...

...like she could have done something to help me.

I couldn't wrap my head around any of it.